DEAF SPORTS Deaflympics Football

Deaflympics slogan "Power in me" meaning to empower athletes and inspire them to be at their best did not register to the boys in green today as they battled with France today by a 1-0 result, failing to advance to the semi finals.

Ireland began the game in a determined fashion of counter attack as within the 9th minute with O' Donnell intercepting a pass to Dougherty who went on to attack the goal, but French defender headed it away to safety.

Wynne had his first corner kick of the game in the 11th minute only to be cleared away by a French header and following that a 25 yard free kick by Byrne went over the cross bar despite the clever dummies of Wynne and Sinclair.

Watson had sprained his thumb after a collision but regained his position again once he got bandaged up.

A Walsh error nearly cost us when he went out of goal as the French closed down on goal only for the ball to strike the outside of the post. The incident seemed to cause the crowd and team to freeze at that moment.

Foy was shouting to the players to use the wind as an advantage as it was blowing in our goal direction but it fell through.

Ireland had their first attempt on goal in 34minutes into the match but Byrne's half volley went straight into the arms of their keeper.

It was all over in the just 4 minutes before half time when a lone goal by Frenchman Peltier, 15 metres into the penalty box where Walsh went out too far, slipping the ball behind him giving the French an early lead in the match after a poor defensive mistake.
France had a run-up attempt on goal in 44' minutes only to be saved by a header from Watson which found Burns who knocked it out of play.

The Irish fighting spirit was lacking among the team and Captain Dunne seemed frustrated by their lack of attempts on goals; Dunne was without his left back, Foy who was nursing a broken ankle and seems the team is badly missing Foy's calm influence on his players.

Stuart Foy said "I miss playing, but now I see the game, the possession of ball is poor and bit poor in passing the ball"

The first half ended with no stoppage time

France kept Ireland from reaching the semi finals by shutting down the Irish in the second half and the difference in the game stayed the as neither team managed to score again the rest of the way, with both teams focusing their efforts on defense.

Derek Jordan sent on to the pitch to replace Burns

A foul on Daly lead another free kick by O Donnell but he over hit it as the ball went out of play much to his team mates annoyance.

This was the first afternoon game for the Irish and the slacking and the nerves could be the reason the team why the team defend dropped giving the opposition almost 70% of ball possession.

Another substitute in the 59th minute of the game with Wynne being replace by Maguire

76 minutes into the game Byrne took a corner, which goes to high seeing Manager Giglione frustrated with the team performance and Walsh's clumsy position at the goal

As the game begins to come to a close, the nerves gets the better of the boys making one too many errors as a begging chance came with 7 minutes left of the game when a foul on Johnson sees Byrnes resulting free kick going too high and also with 4 minutes left Maguire thought he had grabbed an equaliser only for it to be called as an offside

It was evident that Daly, who was under pressure to replace Foy's legacy is keen on developing into a great player listening to advices from Dunne and legendary Foy.

Ireland attempts with several promising offensives in the second half but came up empty on every occasion en route to the disheartening loss.

"A very disappointing game, poor performance from the players, they had no creativity. The French weren't playing their best and we did produce a break through at times but it was our poorest performance out of all the games we played"- Stuart Foy
Captain Dunne " we knew it wouldn't be an easy game against the European champions, we didn't play out game in the first half, everyone was losing control of ball possession but in second half after recuperating with managers advice, we start to attack but couldn't find a break through. Unfortunately we are out"

Ireland faces Iran for 5th/6th place which will take place on Saturday 2.30pm (local time).